Room 101
by StarclanCentral
Summary: Torture is more of a reality in Ba Sing Se than you thought. Note: I don't own Avatar or elated organizations and cities. I do, however, own the character Raikou. Thank you.
1. Chapter 1

Raikou's captors were a bit more intelligent than he had thought. They had managed to catch both of them, alone, and this fact made it seem quite likely indeed that they had been able to capture them long before they actually caught him. The fact that his water flask was still on the side of his table wasn't, in fact, probably not noticed by the agents, but couldn't have discouraged them, could've it?

He found himself with his back to the floor, hands and arms trussed up like a captured wombat-pig, only with stone instead of string. He was being dragged someplace, surrounded by water. Now how was that? Shifting his head to look around with a grunt, as he was rather achey from the ride here, he noticed that they were on a stone pier, or something very much like that, in the middle of a large body of water, probably Lake Laogai. Where had this come from, and what was that scrapy noise? Sudden blackness.

The blackness, however was not complete. There was a faint green light, but Raikou could not see in the gloom. It just seemed like a strange greenish darkness until his eyes adjusted. He was in a large, damp corridor, that had quite a few side hallways, even worse lit than the one he was being dragged along, which had a few glowing green lanterns. Every once in a while, they (the Dai Lee and him) would pass a door that was opened, revealing a much brighter room. One, through the crack in a massive stone door, he saw quite a few people wearing the same strange uniform that Joo Dee had been wearing. The voices slowly spun out, and he could have sworn he heard a multitude of voices saw a group of syllables that sent him were he was now.

"I am Joo Dee."

And then they were past the cracked door, the gathering of women called Joo Dee. Without warning, his steady dragging movement turned sharply down a badly lit corridor. When they had reached a place with no light, they stopped and turned. There, he saw a door, though he felt sure there was no light. And upon that door were three numbers. They meant nothing to anyone except the Dai Lee, but those three numbers managed to send chills up his spine.

**101**

They threw him in the room, and the rocks that held his limbs together attached to a bleak stone wall in the back of the room. He could hardly move in his stone captivity.

He was not just needed to be brainwashed, because the only to wipe his memory of what was the problem was to give him complete amnesia. There was another method, a much more terrible method that connected pain with the problem. His mind would naturally shy away from it after the torture procedure was through. And now he was in room 101, the final bastion of the Dai Lee's true power.

The Dai Lee agents were silent. They just simply took a lantern into the chamber after him. It was much brighter than asny of the lanterns in the hallway, and Raikou was rather confused as to how they had gotten such a bright light in here without lighting up the corridors. They removedthe cover, and there, in front him, was an open flame. What were they doing? That fire was positively blue! It could burn a hole through his head. Were they mad? That must be uncomfortable, even with those rock gloves!

"There is no war in Ba Sing Se. Remember that." These words were disturbing not because of their inaccuracy, but by the man's tone as he said it. Apathetic, distant, but with an obvious threat in his voice. The fire. It was a threat. No, not a threat, something even worse. Pain reinforcemnt. These people were brainwashing him!

Raikou squirmed in his rock prison. There was no way out, not without water, and there was none around. Plus he could barely wiggle his fingers. His mouth wasn't covered though, and in that he saw refuge. His head dropped against his chest, and he faked a sneeze, and in the process spit upon the floor. He had never done this before, but he had the sneaking suspicion... He wiggled his fingers, and the spit- disgusting as it was- flew into his hands. If he could just erode away the cuffs... But it was too late already.

The Dai Lee walked up to him, and ripped his shirt off his shoulder. "There is no war," he said, and held up the hot flame, already making Raikou uncomfortable from it's nearness, onto his undefendable shoulder. The pain was ineffable, so I will not even try to describe it. It made the sorrow hardened waterbender scream and pain, and his busy hands freeze mid erosion cycle...


	2. Chapter 2

The ghost of the pain lingered long after the flame was removed. The Dai Lee knew that they could do no more now, so they left him as he was, hanging, hands and legs attacked to the wall, with a monstrous burn etched into his shoulder. For some reason, they left the lantern behind, possibly to disrupt sleep, or maybe an even more sinister intent. It was hard to tell. By the time Raikou could think again, the heat of the room, once dark, cold and damp but now hot and dry from the ferocity of the flame, his small amount of saliva that he had bent was gone, and his mouth was dry as a cremated corpse. There was now no escape.

Finally, once the pain had worn off, leaving a dead feeling on hi shoulder, Raikou attempted to look at his burn. The fact of the burn being where it was made it slightly blurry, but even in the dancing light of that horrible flame, but Raikou could see it, and when he did, he wished he hadn't. The skin and nerve had been burnt entirely off, leaving the blackened bone showing. It was a gruesome sight, but not as horrible as it would be in a bout a day.

Burn wounds normally grew covered with pus and disgusting before healing, or, in Raikou's case, before they scarred over. The tissue was burnt beyond recognition, and even the greatest healer he had ever known- her memory was firmly implanted on his memory, that much was certain- couldn't completely heal him. Yes, even if, even he managed to escape, if that happened, he would be left with a permanent scar, black and disgusting.

Raikou did not gain any sleep that night, he was too uncomfortable to go to sleep even with his crushing lethargy. Sometime later- when the flame was getting lower and the lantern wick almost burned out- the Dai Lee returned. They did not have a fire. They had a small amount of water, which was in a round bucket, which they somehow fitted about his arm so that his burnt shoulder had water all around it but the water touched no where else. Involuntarily, the waterbender healed himself with the water as the Dai Lee said something that brought joy to his heart, despite himself.

"The Earth King offers you this gift of healing."

The Dai Lee left, with their bucket, and Tiyo couldn't help but be disappointed. Already torture's poison was working in his mind, and the idea of a war was beginning to feel impossible. There was no war with the Fire Nation. There had never been a war, and there never would be. Yes, that was true. A war couldn't exist; it would have burnt the world to ashes if there was a war going on for the past hundred years, therefore there is no war.

Then, unbidden, a face came into his mind. The face of Ikazuchi. Suddenly, his memory opened, and he saw the war, and the war had no more association with physical pain. He remembered her face, her body, burnt almost beyond recognition, and, despite the parchedness of his entire body, tears sprung to his eyes. The war had taken her away from him, and no amount of pain could be fiercer than her death. There was no possibility. The Dai Lee were trying to remove the war from his mind, but in the process had done the exact reverse.

There is threshold of pain, beyond which it switches from memorable to unbearable. But a strong enough love can overcome that barrier, rewrite the very core of the mind's protection, because it cannot let go. This was where Raikou had arrived. Ikazuchi was his muse, and he knew the Dai Lee couldn't possibly take his mind from him. Not even death could.

The Dai Lee returned, with the same blue fire in a lantern. Raikou's eyes widened. "What... What are you doing with that?" he asked them, despite his dry throat. He was afraid of the Fire, and some part of him- the part they thought was dominant- would do anything to escape the fire again. Suddenly, all of his resistance fled beneath the heat of the massive flame, and he began to scream at the Dai Lee. His words were incoherent, garbled, but he just wanted the Fire to go away, but they didn't stop. They said something else, something about discussing the war, and the Fire came closer...

And Raikou woke once more, in his bed, in the house in the middle ring. There was a strange scar on his shoulder, he got it from an incident with the boiler. Yes, that was right. How else would he get it? A firebnder? That was laughable. After all, the Earth Kingdom had been at peace with the Fire Nation for nearly twenty years!


End file.
